Microparticles such as microcapsules have great potential for applications involving encapsulation, delivery, and release of agents in fields such as agriculture, health care, cosmetics and detergents, construction chemicals, and food and beverages. A variety of physical and chemical methods, including spray-drying, coextrusion, interfacial polymerization, and complex coacervation, have been used for high-throughput preparation of microparticles. For example, using various microfluidic technologies, a variety of agents have been encapsulated into emulsions, which are then solidified to form solid microparticles or other types of particles, for instance, by interfacial polycondensation, freezing, or polymerization. However, improvements in particle technologies are still needed.
In formulated products containing high levels of surfactants as well as microparticles with oil based payloads, the presence of the surfactants tends to increase the likelihood of the migration of the payload out of the micro particles and decrease the useful shelf life of the product. Microparticles having greater payload stability when disposed in an environment having a high concentration of surfactants are desired.